Meth and a mom: Now sober, woman bids to reclaim what addiction stole

There's a growing danger in Louisville: Crystal meth. It's stronger than the meth of decades ago. And deadlier.
Beth Warren

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As DaCota and his mom settle in for a Sunday afternoon movie, Jumanji, Tasha pulls her son in close to share the time together.
Natasha Turpin, 34, a recovering meth addict, visits with her son DaCota Ascencio, 13, during a weekend visit from The Healing Place at her parentÕs home in Danville, Ky. March 25, 2018(Photo: Brian Bohannon, Brian Bohannon, Special to Courier Journal)Buy Photo

Natasha Turpin began to fidget, tapping her foot on the car floorboard on the way to see her two youngest children. She hadn't seen them in years.

She's trying to cut back on cigarettes but had to sneak some puffs. The 34-year-old uttered some prayers, too.

"I'm excited and nervous at the same time," she said. "It's been so long.

"I'm not the same person."

The recent reunion, at a McDonald's restaurant in Central Kentucky, might have looked unremarkable to onlookers — a parent chomping on salty fries, laughing and watching kids romp and shriek in the play area.

But for this family, the moment was monumental.

Turpin is among a growing number of Kentuckians caught in the undertow of a powerful drug with a dangerous new twist. Crystal meth.

Superlabs run by Mexican cartels have largely replaced small local labs. And the meth they're making is often doubled the strength, reaching a near 100 percent purity. And, at times, they're mixing in deadly fentanyl — a hidden danger Turpin assumed only applied to heroin.

Last year, methamphetamines were found in more than 100 Jefferson County deaths, triple the number from 2015, according to coroner data. That's a trend mirrored in Kentucky and across the nation.

Turpin even switched from heroin to meth, thinking her cravings would be easier to manage. They weren't.

She lost custody of her three children years ago because of her meth addiction. Now, after recently completing a year of sobriety at The Healing Place in Louisville, her main desire is to rebuild family bonds.

She keeps in regular contact with her oldest son, DaCota, 13, who is being raised by her mom and stepfather in Danville. But she misses seeing her daughter, 11, and son, 12, who live with their father.

"She said it's been five years since she's seen them," said Turpin's mother, Deborah Hale. "It's probably been five years since she's seen themnot high."

On the drive, Turpin worried she might have lost her maternal bond. She remembers her children as little kids, but they have sprouted into preteens.

Those fears quickly melted away in the dreary downpour as her son and daughter opened their arms to hug their "Mama."

"That weight just kind of lifted off," Turpin said days later, a wide smile spreading at the memory.

"We just cherished every moment."

The 12-year-old stood in front of her, anxious to show how tall he is after a recent growth spurt. His 11-year-old sister showed off her long, thick locks, a big change from a short hairdo she had before. And as they munched on burgers, both told their mom they made the honor roll at school.

"There weren't any questions about the past," Turpin said. "I'm sure in the future, there will be."

DaCota, who has a different father than his siblings, enjoyed chatting with his younger sister and brother. He misses living in the same house, riding bikes and playing video games together.

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DaCota teaches his mom how to play Yu-Gi-Oh!, a dueling trading card game, and has to explain how the cards work.
Natasha Turpin, 34, a recovering meth addict, visits with her son DaCota Ascencio, 13, during a weekend visit from The Healing Place at her parentÕs home in Danville, Ky. March 25, 2018 Brian Bohannon, Brian Bohannon, Special to Courier Journal

DaCota tries to hog the popcorn as he and his mom finish watching Jumanji.
Natasha Turpin, 34, a recovering meth addict, visits with her son DaCota Ascencio, 13, during a weekend visit from The Healing Place at her parentÕs home in Danville, Ky. March 25, 2018 Brian Bohannon, Brian Bohannon, Special to Courier Journal

During a movie break for microwave popcorn, Tasha gives DaCota a hug, but he pulls away with a need to cough.
Natasha Turpin, 34, a recovering meth addict, visits with her son DaCota Ascencio, 13, during a weekend visit from The Healing Place at her parentÕs home in Danville, Ky. March 25, 2018 Brian Bohannon, Brian Bohannon, Special to Courier Journal

DaCota teaches his mom how to play Yu-Gi-Oh!, a dueling trading card game, and has to explain how the cards work.
Natasha Turpin, 34, a recovering meth addict, visits with her son DaCota Ascencio, 13, during a weekend visit from The Healing Place at her parentÕs home in Danville, Ky. March 25, 2018 Brian Bohannon, Brian Bohannon, Special to Courier Journal

As DaCota and his mom settle in for a Sunday afternoon movie, Jumanji, Tasha pulls her son in close to share the time together.
Natasha Turpin, 34, a recovering meth addict, visits with her son DaCota Ascencio, 13, during a weekend visit from The Healing Place at her parentÕs home in Danville, Ky. March 25, 2018 Brian Bohannon, Brian Bohannon, Special to Courier Journal

As DaCota and his mom settle in for a Sunday afternoon movie, Jumanji, Tasha pulls her son in close to share the time together.
Natasha Turpin, 34, a recovering meth addict, visits with her son DaCota Ascencio, 13, during a weekend visit from The Healing Place at her parentÕs home in Danville, Ky. March 25, 2018 Brian Bohannon, Brian Bohannon, Special to Courier Journal

DaCota teaches his mom how to play Yu-Gi-Oh!, a dueling trading card game, and has to explain how the cards work.
Natasha Turpin, 34, a recovering meth addict, visits with her son DaCota Ascencio, 13, during a weekend visit from The Healing Place at her parentÕs home in Danville, Ky. March 25, 2018 Brian Bohannon, Brian Bohannon, Special to Courier Journal

DaCota teaches his mom how to play Yu-Gi-Oh!, a dueling trading card game, and has to explain how the cards work.
Natasha Turpin, 34, a recovering meth addict, visits with her son DaCota Ascencio, 13, during a weekend visit from The Healing Place at her parentÕs home in Danville, Ky. March 25, 2018 Brian Bohannon, Brian Bohannon, Special to Courier Journal

DaCota teaches his mom how to play Yu-Gi-Oh!, a dueling trading card game, and has to explain how the cards work.
Natasha Turpin, 34, a recovering meth addict, visits with her son DaCota Ascencio, 13, during a weekend visit from The Healing Place at her parentÕs home in Danville, Ky. March 25, 2018 Brian Bohannon, Brian Bohannon, Special to Courier Journal

Tasha and DaCota play a game of UNO in the living room with the TV off.
Natasha Turpin, 34, a recovering meth addict, visits with her son DaCota Ascencio, 13, during a weekend visit from The Healing Place at her parentÕs home in Danville, Ky. March 25, 2018 Brian Bohannon, Brian Bohannon, Special to Courier Journal

Tasha and DaCota play a game of UNO in the living room with the TV off.
Natasha Turpin, 34, a recovering meth addict, visits with her son DaCota Ascencio, 13, during a weekend visit from The Healing Place at her parentÕs home in Danville, Ky. March 25, 2018 Brian Bohannon, Brian Bohannon, Special to Courier Journal

Tasha and DaCota play a game of UNO in the living room with the TV off.
Natasha Turpin, 34, a recovering meth addict, visits with her son DaCota Ascencio, 13, during a weekend visit from The Healing Place at her parentÕs home in Danville, Ky. March 25, 2018 Brian Bohannon, Brian Bohannon, Special to Courier Journal

Tasha and DaCota play a game of UNO in the living room with the TV off.
Natasha Turpin, 34, a recovering meth addict, visits with her son DaCota Ascencio, 13, during a weekend visit from The Healing Place at her parentÕs home in Danville, Ky. March 25, 2018 Brian Bohannon, Brian Bohannon, Special to Courier Journal

DaCota is focused on an iPhone game as he eats, so Tasha joins him in the bowling game as player two.
Natasha Turpin, 34, a recovering meth addict, visits with her son DaCota Ascencio, 13, during a weekend visit from The Healing Place at her parentÕs home in Danville, Ky. March 25, 2018 Brian Bohannon, Brian Bohannon, Special to Courier Journal

Tasha and DaCota play a game of UNO in the living room with the TV off.
Natasha Turpin, 34, a recovering meth addict, visits with her son DaCota Ascencio, 13, during a weekend visit from The Healing Place at her parentÕs home in Danville, Ky. March 25, 2018 Brian Bohannon, Brian Bohannon, Special to Courier Journal

The pizza is warm and Tasha asks him to come and eat, but he has more zombies to kill and level up before he'll stop.
Natasha Turpin, 34, a recovering meth addict, visits with her son DaCota Ascencio, 13, during a weekend visit from The Healing Place at her parentÕs home in Danville, Ky. March 25, 2018 Brian Bohannon, Brian Bohannon, Special to Courier Journal

When nothing looks good for breakfast in the cupboard, DaCota remembers the pizza in the refrigerator, and asks his mom, Tasha, to warm it up.
Natasha Turpin, 34, a recovering meth addict, visits with her son DaCota Ascencio, 13, during a weekend visit from The Healing Place at her parentÕs home in Danville, Ky. March 25, 2018 Brian Bohannon, Brian Bohannon, Special to the Courier Journal

The pizza is warm and Tasha asks him to come and eat, but he has more zombies to kill and level up before he'll stop.
Natasha Turpin, 34, a recovering meth addict, visits with her son DaCota Ascencio, 13, during a weekend visit from The Healing Place at her parentÕs home in Danville, Ky. March 25, 2018 Brian Bohannon, Brian Bohannon, Special to Courier Journal

DaCota is focused on an iPhone game as he eats, so Tasha joins him in the bowling game as player two.
Natasha Turpin, 34, a recovering meth addict, visits with her son DaCota Ascencio, 13, during a weekend visit from The Healing Place at her parentÕs home in Danville, Ky. March 25, 2018 Brian Bohannon, Brian Bohannon, Special to the C-J

The pizza is warm and Tasha asks him to come and eat, but he has more zombies to kill and level up before he'll stop.
Natasha Turpin, 34, a recovering meth addict, visits with her son DaCota Ascencio, 13, during a weekend visit from The Healing Place at her parentÕs home in Danville, Ky. March 25, 2018 Brian Bohannon, Brian Bohannon, Special to Courier Journal

The pizza is warm and Tasha asks him to come and eat, but he has more zombies to kill and level up before he'll stop.
Natasha Turpin, 34, a recovering meth addict, visits with her son DaCota Ascencio, 13, during a weekend visit from The Healing Place at her parentÕs home in Danville, Ky. March 25, 2018 Brian Bohannon, Brian Bohannon, Special to Courier Journal

She was going through a divorce, so DaCota hoped it would pass. He didn't understand the power of addiction, a brain disease that overrides logic.

He remembers when the snacks ran out and he would return home from school hungry. And it could take hours to wake her in the mornings. When the younger ones' bellies grumbled, DaCota tried to slide bread slices into the toaster but was too short.

He bore the brunt of his mother's addiction alone after his brother and sister went to live with their father.

“The sadness was just building up and building up and I just decided to accept it and move on. Everybody's life isn't perfect.”

DaCota

DaCota will be 14 this summer, but he's still afraid of the dark — even avoiding looking out the window after sunset, Hale said.

She thinks he may have slept alone in the car years ago when his mom was using. He doesn't talk about that.

He does describe how tired he was and how he longed for his own bed when his mother dragged him around while looking for a fix. DaCota said he was scared when they constantly encountered strangers.

He also had to see his mom behind bars on drug charges. He dreaded going there.

"The sadness was just building up and building up, and I just decided to accept it and move on," DaCota said. "Everybody's life isn't perfect."

Hale and her husband, Rick, eventually got custody of DaCota.

He begged his mom to stop by on Christmas Day in 2016 and she willingly agreed. But she ended up miles away. High again.

When she called and fumbled through a fake excuse, she heard the hurt in his voice. It was a breaking point.

Turpin longed to be a better mom — a key motivator in her recovery. She's discovered meditation and prayer and friends who support her sobriety.

That means she can't move back to Danville, where DaCota lives. Dealers and users who know her live there, too.

"I miss her," DaCota said. "But she has to stay there so she can get better."

He relishes his mom's visits, even when she beats him at card games and gloats mercilessly.

"Just wait. I'll make my comeback!" he told her during a recent face-off in the Hales' living room floor.

She taunted: "When are you making this comeback?"

The two stared at each other, noses nearly touching, like pro-wrestlers trying to intimidate their opponents. Then they burst into laughter.

But even now, Turpin can't always be there for DaCota. On a recent evening, he stepped onto his middle school stage for his debut as a laughing hyena in "The Lion King" — and knew his mother wouldn’t be watching.

She was 88 miles away at the recovery center, where she now mentors others.

"It's OK,” he said with a shrug. “She misses a lot of stuff.”

When his mother visited him afterward, he darted into his bedroom and returned wearing a grey hoodie with huge floppy ears and spots. He flung his head backward and belted out a piercing “hee-hee-hee.”

"DaCota!" his grandmother scolded. But the teen giggled proudly.

He told his mom she didn’t miss much during the play because a cold made his voice too raspy and his hood, with its oversized animal ears, kept slipping off.

Today, he was better, he assured his mom.

She applauded and laughed, something she tends to do a lot now that she's drug-free.